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Why did Donald J. Trump transfer from Fordham to Wharton in 1968
Executive summary
Donald J. Trump transferred from Fordham University to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and graduated from Wharton with a BS in economics in 1968; contemporaneous and later reporting says the move was driven by family preference for Wharton and by Trump’s stated desire for a larger business network [1] [2] [3]. Multiple sources also report that family connections — notably a phone call from his brother to a Penn admissions official or help from a family friend — assisted his admission as a transfer student [4] [5] [6].
1. Why Trump says he moved: “better contacts for my future”
Trump himself and some biographical accounts frame the transfer as a strategic choice: he wanted a bigger business network and the prestige of Wharton, an institution favored by his father, Fred Trump, so he left Fordham after two years to pursue those connections at Penn [1] [2]. Contemporary reporting quotes Trump’s own description of getting in “quickly and easily” and presents the transfer as part of a pivot toward the real-estate–oriented career his family favored [3] [1].
2. How peers and campus records describe it: a junior transfer who didn’t stand out
Classmates and student reporting from Penn portray Trump as a junior transfer who completed required coursework in two years and did not participate widely on campus; many classmates later said they barely remembered him [7] [8]. The Daily Pennsylvanian and alumni recollections note that Trump wasn’t on the Dean’s List or among prize recipients for the Class of 1968 — consistent with reporting that he graduated but not with honors [9] [10].
3. Role of family connections and favors in admission
Multiple investigative pieces and biographies report that Trump’s transfer involved help from family connections: Gwenda Blair’s biography and interviews with Penn staff cite Freddy Trump contacting a friend in admissions, and James Nolan, an admissions officer, told reporters that he received a call on Donald’s behalf — suggesting an easier path for transfers at that time and a personal nudge that aided admission [6] [4] [5]. Reporting emphasizes that mid-1960s Wharton was far less selective than later decades and that transfer applicants had comparatively higher acceptance rates [4] [5].
4. Conflicting narratives about credentials and merit
For years, media and Trump’s own claims sometimes conflated Wharton’s undergraduate reputation with top-MBA prestige and even included inaccurate superlatives (e.g., “first in his class”) — claims that later fact-checking and archival lists did not support [9] [10]. Some accounts defend the legitimacy of his degree while noting the era’s loose selectivity and transfer practices; others highlight that archival commencement programs do not show honors associated with his name [9] [10].
5. Allegations of test fraud and unresolved claims
Mary Trump and subsequent media coverage have advanced allegations that Donald Trump used a proxy to take the SAT and that his admission benefited from irregular help; these claims are reported in family sources and repeated in media but rely on testimony rather than contemporaneous admissions records available in the cited reporting [11] [10]. The sources document the allegation and the claim of family assistance but do not produce a formal archival record proving SAT fraud in the provided items [11] [4].
6. What the records do — and do not — show
Available reporting and university archives cited by student newspapers and investigators confirm that Trump transferred to Wharton in 1966 and graduated in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics; they also show he was not listed among the dean’s list or prize winners for that class [1] [9] [10]. Available sources do not mention any university statement explicitly adjudicating allegations about SAT substitution or rescinding admission based on those claims [11] [10].
7. Broader context and why this mattered later
The story of the transfer matters beyond a biographical footnote because it feeds into competing narratives about merit, privilege, and legacy: critics point to family influence and loose-era admissions to question the merit basis of his credentials, while supporters point to a legitimate Wharton diploma as proof of business bona fides [6] [4]. Reporting shows both threads — documented transfer and graduation, plus contemporaneous anecdotes about preferential help — and leaves room for different interpretations based on how much weight one gives to family influence versus institutional records [5] [9].
Limitations: all factual assertions above are drawn from the provided set of sources; topics such as definitive proof of SAT fraud or the internal adjudication of admissions practices are either alleged or not documented in the cited reporting [11] [4].